How To Turn Your (Failing) Business And Finances Around In 7 Steps

2014 was the most challenging year for me ever since I’ve started doing business online. Here’s how I turned things around in less than 6 months.

https://premium.wpmudev.org/ which allows you to use all products on a client site.

Flatrates and subscriptions in general can help you save money if you know you are spending a certain amount anyway.

In your personal life, if you tend to spend a lot on digital platforms such as iTunes it may be cheaper to get yourself a monthly HBO subscription (HBO Now is only 15 bucks). However, this approach only works if you can actually stick to one platform and avoid using the other.

There are many other tactics to cut costs that can pay off. Research a few that may apply to your spending habits.

5 Avoid Hedonic Adaption

When you are done comparing prices and subscriptions, you absolutely need to focus on increasing your profit margin. You can cut costs only to a certain point. Some argue cutting costs is a waste of time and you should always try to increase your revenues first. I disagree. If you don’t cut costs first you will simply adapt your lifestyle to the higher profits. This is known as hedonic adaption. And of all things, I never thought that it would happen to me.

I’ve been an avid saver my entire life and I never spent much money on anything really, but after reviewing my yearly expenses in 2014 more closely I had to admit that I had been spending more than I could afford.

Overspending happens, but if you want to improve your financial situation you absolutely have to tackle these issues.

6 Then Focus On Increasing Revenue

Increasing revenues of an existing business is easier than you might think. The trick is to focus on habits that make money. The problem is most solo-entrepreneurs fly blind really and many small businesses too. They don’t track anything.

Tracking is crucial.

You need to set up event tracking and entire sales funnel tracking to better evaluate your business. What if you change your layout in this way or that. Does this yellow button perform better than the green one? Is my server too slow and increases my cart abandonment rate?

Also, you absolutely need to know how much the different sub-niches of your business are bringing in. Every business has different products, but which one is actually making the most money? If you can’t answer this one from the top of your head you have already identified a crucial business mistake.

Websites: For websites this can be the different topics you write about. If you notice that a certain topic is performing much better than the others, why don’t you spend 80% of your time writing about the topic that actually makes money rather than spending time on articles that perform poorly? Yes, yes, those others bring you traffic and links, but why don’t you outsource it then?

eCommerce: For eCommerce shops, the approach is similar. Why do you list products that perform poorly in the first place? Improve the listings of your top-sellers and expand the product line for that specific niche.

Services: Businesses that provide a service, e.g. website maintenance and security audits for example should focus on the one thing that brings in the most money and consider dropping the other one completely. Focus is key.

7 Keep Working On Your Strategic Approach And Your Endgame

Always be mindful of the big picture. Your investment strategy or business strategy may be flawed. If you notice something is crumbling you need to react. You not only need to react, you need to react pro-actively.

Let’s say you invest amount X into commodities. Suddenly you notice a change in market perception, demand or supply, but the market hasn’t realized it yet. What do you do, do you wait to see if the market reacts or do you sell before others catch on? Markets change constantly. A stock can triple in value because the market suddenly has more data that allows it to better evaluate the company. The same can happen to YOUR business over night.

Keep following market trends and perception. I spend a lot of time just tracking developments and reading. More information allows me to draw a clearer picture of the future and allows me to position my business pro-actively before the market makes a move. That’s when prices skyrocket and you’re already in the boat not waiting on the sidelines.

I applied most of the strategies outlined above early on, but you need to expand your knowledge and dig even deeper over the years. Admitting that you don’t know everything and that you can still learn a thing or two is important. This has really helped me to turn my businesses and finances around. Together with a focused, systematic approach you can easily turn your business around in months or at least make steps towards higher revenues and lower expenses. Spending less than you earn sounds easy, but even the best savers get tempted by our hedonistic society that keeps throwing annoying ads at us. Possession is meaningless and that catchy new car will get old real quick. Do yourself a favor and start investing in yourself.

Oliver is the founder of webmaster.net and wants to help other webmasters to grow and optimize their sites. He started creating websites in 2006, turned it into his profession by 2010 and has been working on his websites and services ever since. Connect with him on LinkedIn for frequent webmaster updates.

One last tidbit that I forgot to address in the article: It’s a great idea to go broke on purpose. Simply keep your money in a locked down account you cant access or invest it into other companies than your own (yes everything except 1 to 3 months of cash reserves). This will immediately force you to make big changes in your own business and create a positive cashflow. Of course, the larger the company the more difficult this is. It’s a great strategy that will force you to re-evaluate what you are doing and the best way to counteract hedonic adaption in your personal life.